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In short
A Cancer Moon and a Sagittarius Moon score 8 to 23.5 out of 36 in this app, median 19, across all 81 nakshatra-quarter pairings with Cancer entered first; Sagittarius first adds 1. Jupiter counts the Moon a friend (Graha Maitri 4), but Sagittarius is the 6th sign from Cancer, so Bhakoot is 0 and the sign kootas give only 4.5 of 15.
Cancer and Sagittarius are ruled by the Moon and Jupiter, and Jupiter is exalted in Cancer. On classical sign relationships alone this looks like a sympathetic pair. In Ashtakoot matching, though, the two signs sit at a 6/8 distance, the order of entry costs a point, and the birth stars bring a Yoni clash. The totals sit in the lower half of the scale. Each piece is explained below.
The signs: Cancer, Karka rashi and Sagittarius, Dhanu rashi. The system: the nakshatra matching hub. Two actual charts: the Kundli matching calculator.
Kark and Dhanu in BPHS
BPHS Ch. 4 makes both signs strong at night and Sattvic, and there the likeness ends. Kark (Sl. 10-11) is watery, many-footed, bulky, pale-red, forest-dwelling and ruled by Candr. Dhanu (Sl. 17-18.5) is fiery, tawny, "A royal Rasi", biped in its first half and quadruped in its second, adores an arch, resides in the east and is lorded by Guru. Sl. 5-5.5 makes Kark movable and phlegmatic, Dhanu dual and bilious. Ch. 3 Sl. 49-50 adds that Guru's exaltation sign is Kark - a classical link between the two that Ashtakoot, as the engine implements it, does not use.
A Cancer Moon is in Punarvasu (one quarter), Pushya or Ashlesha. A Sagittarius Moon is in Mula, Purva Ashadha, or the first quarter of Uttara Ashadha.
The kootas this sign pair fixes: 4.5 of 15
| Koota | Out of | Cancer first | Sagittarius first | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Varna | 1 | 0 | 1 | Different classes; the engine compares A with B |
| Vashya | 2 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Groups more than one step apart |
| Graha Maitri | 5 | 4 | 4 | Jupiter lists the Moon as a friend; the Moon is neutral to Jupiter |
| Bhakoot | 7 | 0 | 0 | Sagittarius is 6th from Cancer; Cancer 8th from Sagittarius |
| Sign total | 15 | 4.5 | 5.5 |
Graha Maitri (the koota) is the one bright spot. In the BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 55 relationships stored in the engine, Jupiter counts the Moon a friend; the Moon's list of friends contains only the Sun and Mercury, so it regards Jupiter as neutral. Friend-neutral is worth 4, where all four of the engine's references agree.
Bhakoot (the koota) is lost. Counting inclusively, Sagittarius is the 6th sign from Cancer and Cancer the 8th from Sagittarius. 6/8 is one of the engine's three zero distances (with 2/12 and 5/9), taken from two web references because no book in this app's library states the rule. The resulting 0 is usually called Bhakoot dosha.
Varna (the koota) depends on the order of entry: the engine passes it only when the first Moon's class is at the same position as the second's or later in its list. Cancer's class heads that list, so Cancer entered first scores 0 and Sagittarius entered first scores 1. The header records this as an open point. Vashya (the koota) gives 0.5 for groups that are neither the same nor adjacent. Varna is a sign-classification term here, not a statement about people.
The kootas the nakshatras decide
- Yoni is 0 in 16 pairings and 2 in 65. Pushya's animal is the Sheep and Purva Ashadha's the Monkey, which the engine lists as enemies.
- Nadi is 0 in 24 and 8 in 57. Each Cancer star has a Sagittarius partner in the same Nadi: Punarvasu with Mula (Aadi), Pushya with Purva Ashadha (Madhya), Ashlesha with Uttara Ashadha (Antya).
- Gana is 6 in 16, 3 in 45, 0 in 20. Mula is Rakshasa, so Cancer's two Deva stars score 0 against it and Ashlesha, also Rakshasa, scores 6.
- Tara is 3 in 16 and 1.5 in 65.
Pushya is the Cancer star most exposed here. Against Purva Ashadha it loses both Yoni (Sheep and Monkey) and Nadi (both Madhya) at once; against Mula it loses Gana. Ashlesha, oddly, does best: it shares a gana with Mula, its Cat is no enemy of anything in Sagittarius, and it shares a Nadi only with the single quarter of Uttara Ashadha.
Punarvasu, Cancer's single opening quarter, is the star behind the very lowest result. Against Mula it meets a Rakshasa star in the same Aadi nadi, so Gana and Nadi fall together. Because it is only one quarter of Cancer, that combination is rare, but it is the one the worked example below happens to land on.
The range of totals
Cancer first, the 81 totals run from 8 to 23.5 out of 36, median 19. Sagittarius first, 9 to 24.5, median 20. With only 4.5 or 5.5 points from the signs, the nakshatras supply nearly everything, and even their best case cannot lift the total much past the mid-twenties.
For comparison in the same engine, Cancer with Scorpio (a 5/9 pair) runs 10.5 to 26, and Cancer with Capricorn (the opposition, 7/7) runs 12.5 to 26.5. The 6/8 rule and the order-dependent Varna together place Sagittarius below both. These are statements about the scoring tables, not about Cancer or Sagittarius people.
It is worth seeing how much of the range is in the stars. The sign kootas contribute a constant; everything between 8 and 23.5 is the nakshatra kootas moving. That 15.5-point spread is wider than the 15 points the four sign kootas could ever give even at their best. For this pair especially, a reading that stops at "Cancer and Sagittarius" tells a couple almost nothing about their own figure, which may sit anywhere from the bottom of the scale to its middle depending on a few hours of birth time.
For a real couple, both stars are needed, which means both birth times. The nakshatra calculator finds them; Moon sign and nakshatra explains why a Moon has both a sign and a star.
Worked example: Cancer 1 degree with Sagittarius 1 degree
A Moon at 1 degree of Cancer is in the last quarter of Punarvasu; a Moon at 1 degree of Sagittarius is in Mula. Cancer entered first:
| Koota | Score | Out of | What decided it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varna | 0 | 1 | Sign: Cancer entered first |
| Vashya | 0.5 | 2 | Sign: groups not adjacent |
| Tara | 1.5 | 3 | Nakshatra: count 13 favourable, 16 unfavourable |
| Yoni | 2 | 4 | Nakshatra: Cat and Dog |
| Graha Maitri | 4 | 5 | Sign: Moon neutral, Jupiter friendly |
| Gana | 0 | 6 | Nakshatra: Deva with Rakshasa |
| Bhakoot | 0 | 7 | Sign: 6/8 |
| Nadi | 0 | 8 | Nakshatra: Aadi with Aadi |
| Total | 8 | 36 |
This is the minimum for the pair. Four kootas score 0: Varna (entry order), Gana and Nadi (Punarvasu against Mula), and Bhakoot (6/8). Graha Maitri contributes half the total on its own. A Cancer Moon a few degrees on, in Pushya, would recover Nadi (Madhya against Aadi), though Gana would still be 0; the total would rise by 8 without either Moon changing sign.
What the classical texts say
BPHS provides the sign classes (Ch. 4) and the friendship lists (Ch. 3 Sl. 55) behind the Varna and Graha Maitri rows; Jupiter's friendship with the Moon is part of that. The Ashtakoot scoring and the 6/8 rule are found in no book in this app's library - not BPHS, Saravali, the Bhrigu Sutras, Daivajna Vallabha or Advanced Predictive Astrology. None of them discusses a Cancer Moon with a Sagittarius Moon as a match.
What a score does not tell you
An 8 is a low number on a 36-point scale, and nothing more: it is the output of a rule set, several of whose cells its own sources dispute, applied to two Moon positions. It does not describe two people, and this app does not say whether anyone should marry. Mars placement is a separate check - see Mangal dosha: what it is and is not. Nadi dosha explains the shared-Nadi result. The love compatibility calculator gives a lighter comparison. Related pairs: Cancer and Scorpio, Cancer and Capricorn and Leo and Sagittarius.
- What is the Guna Milan score for a Cancer Moon and a Sagittarius Moon?
- 8 to 23.5 out of 36 in this app with Cancer entered first (median 19); 9 to 24.5 with Sagittarius first.
- Why is Bhakoot 0?
- Sagittarius is the 6th sign from Cancer and Cancer the 8th from Sagittarius. The engine scores 6/8, 2/12 and 5/9 distances as 0.
- Jupiter is exalted in Cancer - does that help?
- Not in Ashtakoot. Graha Maitri reads only the natural friendship between the two sign lords; Jupiter counts the Moon a friend and the Moon counts Jupiter neutral, which gives 4. Dignity is not part of the calculation.
- Why does entering Sagittarius first add a point?
- The engine's Varna koota compares the first Moon with the second. Sagittarius first passes; Cancer first does not.
- How do we see our own score?
- Enter both births in the match tool, which reads both nakshatras.
Kundli Matching (Guna Milan)
The classical Ashtakoot score out of 36, computed from two birth dates.
This one has its own page
This one runs on its own page, built for it, where the full result is laid out properly. No account is needed there either.